


Earning Her Keep

by Yangs Sunglasses (Nilenium)



Category: Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: F/M, Season/Series 05, Smut, relationship troubles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 04:40:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28737390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nilenium/pseuds/Yangs%20Sunglasses
Summary: "In my mind I’m still paying you." Lizzie smirked bitterly. Trust Tommy to know what to say to make it really hurt.In which I wrote a follow-up to that scene from s5e2.
Relationships: Tommy Shelby/Lizzie Stark
Comments: 16
Kudos: 45





	Earning Her Keep

The hour was late, the children long since laid to bed and the servants retired for the night. The only one still awake was the lady of the house, though she wasn’t in a habit of waiting up for her husband who was sure to come home very late again. She knew his schedule, so she was free to choose whether she wanted to see him before going to sleep or discover him beside her in the morning, him having slipped between the sheets past midnight.

The reason for Lizzie staying up was more prosaic – she couldn’t fall asleep. Exhaustion weighed down her body like a heavy load tied to each limb, but her mind was fully awake, sprinting a mile a minute. Thoughts were churning in her head, of Linda, of letters they wrote and her secret calls to London and she wished she could just fucking turn them off and go to sleep.

Sighing in defeat, Lizzie sat up and picked her cigarette case from the nightstand. With a trembling hand she opened it and plucked out one long stick, almost spilling the rest of them on the floor. The she fumbled for the lighter in the total darkness. She had to try twice before she finally lit the cigarette.

Looking out the window, Lizzie sat on the bed she shared with Tommy (it was never just hers, like everything in this house and long before that, her life). She took a long drag, kept the smoke in, then slowly blew it all out as if expunging herself of the incessant thoughts that were driving her crazy.

Smoking calmed her down, the nicotine steadying her as she concentrated on just breathing. In and out. But no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t stop the memory of what he’d said to her that day from replaying once again.

_In my mind I’m still paying you._

Lizzie smirked bitterly. Trust Tommy to know what to say to make it really hurt. Her question about their finances was well-warranted – she needed to know how bad it was, after the stock market crashed and Michael’s screw-up cost them millions. Tommy was expanding the illegal business once again to make up for the losses. The risk of a deal going wrong, a rival shooting him was very real, and she couldn’t afford to look away from it and pretend that it didn’t exist. Someone planted landmines in their backyard, for fuck’s sake! Oh, Tommy never said a thing, at least not when he was awake, but she was far from stupid. She only heard the gunfire and explosions from her study, then saw the upturned earth around the scarecrow, but why else he’d had a minesweeper come the next day?

And if it wasn’t another shady business deal that finished him off, because let’s face it, the man was a devil in a human skin, then the only one who could kill Tommy fucking Shelby was Tommy Shelby himself. And that possibility was even worse to comprehend, but each time she caught him with that lost gaze, staring at nothing, a drink in one hand, a gun in the other, it loomed scarily closer.

She had a right to ask if there would be anything at all left for them if he died now, but he’d only heard what he’d wanted to hear. She asked about the money therefore it was all she cared about in this relationship. As if her most recurring nightmare wasn’t waking up to a phone call informing her in an impersonal voice that she was an early widow.

The cigarette was now flattened between her tightened fingers and with a sigh she put it out in the ashtray. She was working herself up again and for what? Tommy would be Tommy and that wasn’t even the worst thing he’d ever said to her. If she let everything that came out of his mouth get to her, she’d have left years ago.

Lizzie stood up and opened the window a crack. Cold air flew inside and made her shiver in her thin nightgown.

Then she saw lights in the driveway. Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

Lizzie watched him park the car and go to the house in weary steps. Then she closed the window and laid down. She tried to fall asleep before he came to bed, but she was too tense.

He entered the bedroom quietly, like a thief in the night. She heard the rustle of him taking off his clothes, laying them on the chair neatly. Then he came to her nightstand and fiddled with something, but she kept her eyes resolutely shut.

The bed dipped under his weight and an arm wrapped around her. She felt his body right behind her, his breath on her ear as he leaned to murmur.

“I know you’re not sleeping. That fag is still warm.”

“So what? I’m trying to sleep,” she replied just as quietly.

“You’ll sleep later.” His hand brushed down her body in a slow, teasing caress. She gulped, feeling dizzy.

“Tommy…” she whispered his name pleadingly.

He chuckled and pulled up her nightgown past her hips. She felt him behind her, hard and hot as his hand roamed her body again with a firmer touch, cupping her breasts, stroking down to her sex before dipping a finger in. Her body accepted him easily, independent of all the thinking upstairs. A force of habit, she supposed.

“On your hands and knees,” he commanded softly.

She swallowed a lump in her throat and slowly propped herself up into the position. He’d have her anyway, so what was the use in arguing?

Tommy wasted no time, mounting her from behind like one of his prized stallions mating with a mare. Lizzie held in a groan. He started at an easy pace which quickly grew in intensity until he was pounding her, strong and unrelenting, his hips moving like a piston, and all she could do was to hold on for her life. Her arms and legs shook from the strain and the pressure in her clenching gut was joined by the one buzzing behind her eyes, and then everything was falling away from her until she was drifting alone in the dreamless darkness.

“… Lizzie? Lizzie! Wake up, Lizzie!” she heard Tommy calling from the distance. She didn’t want to though. Why couldn’t he let her rest?

He shook her arm lightly but insistently, the other hand stroking down her cheek and neck, and with reluctance she opened her eyes.

Tommy’s cool blue eyes were watching her with worry. That startled her. He never worried about her.

“What happened?” she whispered.

“You fainted on me,” he replied. “… Are you pregnant again?”

“No,” she shook her head and winced, shutting her eyes again. When the dangerous tightness behind them disappeared after a few seconds, she looked at him again, hovering over her.

“Then what the fuck was that?” Tommy asked, without a trace of anger, but in a tone that had to be answered. Lizzie let out a sigh.

“I’m just tired. I haven’t felt well all day,” she admitted, though it wasn’t just one day. She’d been stressed all week, smoked more, ate less. Stupid of her. She should have known better.

Tommy examined her with a slight frown. “Then why didn’t you stop me?”

The idea was so absurd and sudden – her, stopping Thomas Shelby from doing whatever he wanted? – that she snorted.

“What, am I supposed to say now that I’m not in the mood or my head hurts, like all those other society wives?” she said, shaking with mirth and put a hand on his cheek. Just a light touch. “Tom, I know what I am. Don’t worry, this won’t happen again. I know how to earn my keep,” she assured him.

His mouth went slack, eyes slightly widened. “Lizzie…” he said her name only, appearing at a loss of words, then he turned away and punched a pillow. “Fuck,” he swore, hanging down his head as if in pain.

She didn’t understand him but that was nothing new, so she shrugged it off.

“You can say no,” he muttered in the quiet, surprising her. She arched her brow at him.

“Can I? Aren’t you still paying me?” she pointed out calmly.

“You’re my _wife_. You can say no. I would have stopped,” his voice was rough, but rang true and he looked at her in such an earnest way that she had to accept his words. “I _will_ stop if you ask, Lizzie,” he repeated with insistence. “You don’t have to earn anything here.”

She considered him through lowered lashes, then gave a small nod. “Alright,” she said softly, believing him despite his track record.

He exhaled. “Good.” Then he nuzzled her neck, brushing his lips over her throat.

Lizzie shivered. “Tommy,” she said.

“Yes?”

“Aren’t you going to fuck me?”

He stilled. “Now?” he said in a strangled voice. She supposed he was right, she’d just had a faint spell, but his touch reminded her that she was still slick and heated, and her body demanded relief. She bit her lip.

“It should be fine if I’m on my back,” she reasoned. She quirked her mouth in a smirk. “Unless you’re not up to it anymore?” she asked cheekily, taking him in hand, pleased that he hadn’t lost all his vigor. He groaned as she stroked him to a full readiness.

“Lizzie, you’re…” he gasped when she parted her thighs and put his tip to her wet opening.

“I’m?” she asked, fluttering her lashes at him.

He shook his head, unable to choose words to describe her. She didn’t mind, she rather liked taking him by surprise like that.

It was his fault really, for getting her so riled up. That’s all he ever did – frustrated her, with his words and actions that didn’t make a lick of sense, until they did, sort of. She was past the point of guessing now. He was both the source and the cure of her frustration. And long ago she’d admitted to herself that she lacked all dignity when it came to wanting Tommy Shelby.

“You better not pass out again,” he warned.

“Only if you can fuck me good enough,” she challenged, thrilling in the wild glint that ignited in his eyes.

His kiss was short but strong like black coffee in the morning, and just as invigorating. “You fucking asked for it,” he warned and with a sure push forward, slid home into her.

Lizzie moaned, luxuriating in the feel of him inside her. He filled her so good, and even after doing it countless of times before, it was never going to get old to her. Then he moved, gentle despite his earlier words as he rocked his hips into hers. But after a while that wasn’t nearly enough. She needed more, her touches and kisses becoming frenzied with need.

“Come on, please, Tommy,” she urged him on, stroking his shoulders and back. Lizzie wrapped her long legs around him to pull him closer and arched her back to take him even deeper, so deep that he would become a part of her.

“Fuck, Liz,” he groaned, quickening his pace.

Then he reached down there and rubbed her hidden pearl, circling it just the way she’d showed him years before, unaware that she’d handed him another weapon in his arsenal to use on her.

The pleasure built up fast after that until it overflowed, the wave crashing over her and taking her with it. She thought she fainted again, but then she was awake, simply sated, watching Tommy as he followed her into bliss.

Afterwards, he kissed her again, slower, almost lazy, and rolled onto the bed next to her. They rested side by side, enjoying that bone-deep satisfaction only a really good fuck could bring.

Lizzie felt his come drying on her thighs, so she reluctantly went to clean up in their bathroom. When she came back to bed, Tommy was already smoking. When she reached out, he gave the smoke to her. She took a puff and passed it back, then tucked herself into his side. His arm wrapped around her comfortably as they settled, the air around them content, troubles falling far away from their minds.

Things still weren’t okay between them – fucking never solved anything, even though it was the only thing they excelled at, but it wasn’t completely meaningless, Lizzie acknowledged drowsily. It was like the language of their bodies. Did he have any inkling of what she was saying with hers even if she never had the courage to speak it out loud? He probably didn’t. She touched her swollen lips and then wondered in turn if he was ever trying to say something to her in this way. If she would ever figure him out.

For now, Tommy was warm and solid next to her and that was enough. Lizzie closed her eyes and slept soundly for once.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> The title is kind of spoilery, but I couldn't come up with anything better. 
> 
> Let me know how you liked the story. I'll be working on more ideas I have for this ship. I might even take prompts ;)
> 
> Until next time!


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